The Voices (In My Head Again)

A week after the funeral Twilight finally is ready to pack up Sketch’s belongings, but she is shocked at how much she found in his room.

“What is all this stuff?” She asks Spike who was trailing behind her with a large cardboard box in hand, ready to pack up Sketch’s belongings for storage in one of the many back rooms of the castle.

“Oh, well, I wasn’t supposed to tell you but considering what has happened lately you six should know,” Spike says solemnly.

“Six?”

“Yeah, he had gifts for all of you, he even gave me his comic book collection!” Spike announces as he waves around what Twilight thought looked like a bigger, yet thinner, version of his phone and all the bright white screen displayed were…

“Titles?”

“Yeah! He said his friend helped him collect all of these there are thousands!”

“And he gave that to you?” Twilight asks.

“Yup! He wanted to thank us all for being so nice and putting up with him for the time being so he got me, you, Pinkie, Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and the lovely Rarity gifts from his world!”

“H-How did he do that? If he could go back for his things couldn’t he have gone back home?”

“No, apparently there was some weird magic he found that let him grab stuff from his world, specifically his home, he was talking to himself about it for hours, I heard him talking to himself about it quite loudly. Then when I poked my head in to ask he just shut it on me and locked it, talk about rude.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll get the girls…”

One hour later the girls arrive at the castle confused as to why they were called, Twilight remains silent and leads them to Sketch’s room, the girls stand alone at his door as Spike returns to his room to read up as much as he could on the adventures of Deadpool and friends.

“Um Twilight, did you need help cleanin’ up this room er somethin’?” Applejack asks in confusion.

“Yeah Twilight, Why’d you interrupt my second mid-afternoon nap to help you clean?” We know you feel bad about it, but it is just his stuff.”

“Rainbow! How can you be so insensitive? She clearly needs us, otherwise, she wouldn’t have brought us here, right dear?” Rarity asks.

“Actually I’m not the reason you’re here, Sketch is, before the a-accident he planned on getting us all gifts, but didn’t live long enough to give them to us.” At this, the group’s jaws are on the floor, including Rainbow Dash’s.

“But we didn’ do anythin for him.” Applejack points out.

“Not in his eyes, apparently we were the first people to accept him and take him in, he was abandoned by even his own family and wanted to thank us for being with him. I went through the piles of stuff and I found some unique items.” Twilight says as she levitates out six boxes full of items, each box taped shut with packing tape.

“I’ll go first,” Twilight says as she moves her box, which was strangely lighter than the others and she could her something small moving around in it as she sets it down. With a quick rip, she removes the tape and she finds something similar to Spike’s gift inside with a note taped to it.

“Dear BookHorse

Thanks for putting up with my shit, giving me a place to live, and most of all, being my friend for you I give you my world’s library…”

“Well, what’d he give you Sugarcube?” Applejack asks.

“It says he gave me his world’s library, but he couldn’t have pos-” Before she can finish her sentence the tablet bleeps to life and a web page opens up for an online catalog of ebooks numbering in the hundreds of thousands which he had acquired through many subscriptions to various ebook sites and a few audio book sites which he downloaded for later reading, even knowing he could never read them all, of course not all are available at once, she could however download up to four at a time.

“Woah! T-This is amazing! There are more books on here than the Canterlot library!” Twilight exclaims, practically bouncing up and down with joy but is stopped mid hop by Rarity.

“Sorry,” Twilight says sheepishly, ”Okay, next is Pinkie Pie.”

“Ooh ooh ooh my turn, my turn!” Pinkie says excitedly as she pronks over to her box which was, of course, covered in pink tape.

She tears open the box with wild ambition and finds a book inside, she opens it up and gasps loudly.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asks poking her head out from the rest of the mares.

“It’s, it’s a baking guide for every kind of cake he could think of!” Pinkie cheers. "It even has something called "Milk-cake" in it, sounds yummy!"

“Let me see what the monkey got me!” This just earns Rainbow Dash a glare from Twilight and the others, “Heh, sorry.”

She opens her box quickly and finds another book, “What was with him and books?” She thought to herself. Once she opens it she sees why he gave her this time, “It’s a book about aerodynamics and how to increase efficiency for less drag! What does that mean?” She looks to Twilight as she holds the book in her left forehoof.

“It means it will give you tips on how to be as fast as possible featherbrain.”

“Oh, sweet!”

“I guess I’ll go now.” Rarity says as she steps up to her box and using a pair of shears from her saddle bags she delicately opens her box and finds yet another book accompanied by, ”Bottles of chocolate milk?” She peers closer at the bottles and her eyes go wide, “They aren’t bottle of chocolate milk, they are bottles of chocolate wine! And a book on...Cosplay?”

“Sketch told me about that! It is where fans of certain shows, groups, comics or books dress up like their favorite characters, some spending years perfecting their costume.” At this Rarity’s eyes light up, he may not have known much about fashion but this was a great gift.

“Well, it seems he put an awful lot a work into these gifts, wonder what he got me.” Applejack says as she opens her box, in it she finds a large farmer’s almanac. “Uh, Twilight, what the hay is this?” It’s a large blank covered book with a note on it, Twilight levitates it over to her and reads it. "

"It's a farmers almanac from his world, it show’s his world’s farming expertise developed over many generations.” Applejack simply smiles and holds the book to her chest.

“I-I guess it’s my turn then,” Fluttershy says as she hovers over to her box, inside she finds various grooming supplies for various animals and a note.

Dear Yellowpony

I know you like animals as much, or even more than I do, so I thought why not give you some of my old stuff I used to take care of my pets with? I know it isn’t much but I think you have enough animal care books so this is the best I could come up with, sorry.

-Sketch"

“Awww” Fluttershy squees as she closes the box and pushes it near the door.

“I can’t believe he was so thoughtful, and all this just because we were friends with him?” Rarity asks.

“Well he may have been a bit rude, and had a terrible sense of humor but he was good on the inside.”

“Like me!” Discord shouts as his eyes float above the group, he had been watching them the entire time.

“Discord! Why are you here? He didn’t leave anything for you, and we aren’t in the mood for jokes right now.” Twilight announces to the draconiquis as he appears above them in the hall.

“Yes, but I have a deeper connection to him than you all might think.”

“How? Did you know him?” Fluttershy asks as she approaches him.

“Yes, in fact I brought him here after a similar accident cut his life short in his world, and since he knew me I didn’t want him to see me so I have been in disguise around town keeping an eye on him to make sure he behaved.”

“So that’s why you weren’t at our weekly tea party,” Fluttershy says.

“Indeed, sorry by the way, but it seems I don’t have to hide anymore as he is...was, as accident prone her as he was back in his world.”

“Discord just leave.” Twilight seethes.

“What? I am merely just pointing out he has the worst luck of anything I’ve ev-”

“Leave!” Twilight orders, and with that Discord just poofs from existence.

“Oh, my…” Fluttershy squeaks.

With that done the girls all sit and talk for a bit and then go their separate ways but not before there is a knock at the door, and with Spike too enthralled in his comics Sketch gave him Twilight had to answer it herself.”

“Yes who is i-Oh, hi Mocha, what brings you here?” Twilight hiding her dislike for the irresponsible unicorn.

Mocha was nervous to see them all, he knew they must hate him, but he didn’t want to keep it from them, “There were a few of Sketch’s things he left at the coffee house, and I figured you would be the one who inherits them…”

“Oh, okay, thanks, just put them in the hall next to his boxes and let yourself out.” She says as she turns to leave.

Mocha expected them to pretty shaken up by his presence, but he didn’t expect them to be as blunt as that, after all, losing Sketch probably hurts him more than the rest as he was the closest he had to a friend, “I deserve that…” Normally Mocha would make some snide comment in defense of himself, but he just can’t this time…

Twilight just ignores him and walks heads down the hall to her room to read Sketch’s tablet, he even had made a top twenty list of books she should read.

Mocha tries holding back as much as he can there, but he needed to say something if she wouldn’t, “You think this was easy for me? This was the first time since the funeral that I had even left my house, I haven’t even gone to work since what happened!”

“We all feel bad for what happened to him, but you’re the one who caused it! Teleportation is a high-level spell, you don’t learn it until university or even later due to how dangerous it is! Without the proper planning, you can end up right where you want to be or but hundreds of feet up in the air, what were you thinking?” Twilight asks rhetorically, knowing he probably wasn’t thinking when he cast it.

Mocha reaches into his pocket, pulls out a red stress ball and squeezes it hard at the comment, “You really want to know what I was thinking? Cause if you really want to know I will tell you, but you won’t like it!”

“What? That you thought it would be cool to poof him to work so he didn’t have to walk, just so you could show off?!” Twilight’s getting mad now, but she still isn’t looking at him as she stands at the opposite end of the entrance hall facing away.

“I did it so for once I could probably prove to myself that I wasn’t a failure and so that you would finally see me as more than a barista and and maybe want to-”

“You wanted to prove yourself to me? That’s why you did it?! You killed someone in your recklessness you daft foal!”

“It wasn’t my idea to teleport him! He was the one who goaded me on! Do you know what it’s like to know you are terrible at something you should have known as common knowledge and then someone actually tells you they believe in you? Cause, news flash, due to my small horn nopony ever taught me magic, including the danger of it!”

“So besides being reckless and being uneducated in a dangerous art you decided to go along with it? He didn’t even know about magic until he got here less than a month ago, but, you did! And just because you have an inferiority complex due to a small horn, which has little no effect on your magical abilities, you decided to try something just to prove something!?”

“What would you have done in my position? Someone asks you for an important favor and is the only person who ever showed any interest in you! What was I supposed to do? Tell me, and my inferiority complex isn’t about my small horn, it’s because I can’t get friends or boyfriends in a town where I am neighbors with the Princess of Friendship!!! Someone finally believed in me and I was supposed to automatically know he could die when nopony ever taught me that it was dangerous? I know it was a mistake and I’ve been-”

“Just leave his things there and never come back.”

Mocha squeezed his stress ball so hard to the point that it pops, “I thought the Elements of Harmony would understand how traumatic an event like this could be, but don’t worry princess, you won’t see me again… Nopony will, ever…” He says as he storms off, he has something in mind as he knows nopony will forgive him, and he can’t forgive himself…

Twilight just stands there tears streaming down her face, as Mocha slams the door shut as he marches out.